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Solstice Moon
I got up at 6:15 this morning, a dark Northwest winter morning heading for the solstice, and the moonlight across the back deck was so bright, I thought the neighbors’ porch light was on. I opened the door to look, I called my daughter so she could look, too. It was read-by moonlight, and if…
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Bridges real, imagined, or ruined.
Parque Provincial Aconcagua Plaza España, Mendoza We rode the overnight bus back to Rosario from Mendoza last night, luxuriating in coche came comfort–except that my legs are a little short to take full advantage of the footrest. Dozing off, I composed a brilliant blog post in my head. What follows may or may not resemble…
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In search of lost pictures
A mysterious tech glitch having eaten a quantity of pictures off my memory card, I have tried to reconstruct what it was I saw, what I thought I wanted to remember. Snapping quick photos as a memory aid, it’s easy not to look carefully enough; many of the plants are lost to me now, vague…
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Borders, Boundaries, Aerial Photographs
Not having taken any such, I wrote a poem once called “Aerial Photograph.” Years ago, but I still like the poem. Here it is, with several aerial photographs of a quite different landscape: the Andes at the border between Argentina and Chile, taken on a flight from Buenos Aires to Guayaquil. I was irritated when…
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Today’s word harvest: three new trees
Ceibo Sapo game Today we crossed the Rosario-Victoria bridge (long bridge over the Paraná river, longer causeway across the wetlands) to Estancia “El Cerrito” for asado (barbeque), a folklore show (with audience participation dancing at the end), some fierce games of sapo (coin toss with a bronze toad’s gaping maw as target) and lots of…
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Juxtaposition (compare and contrast)
When the program excursion to Buenos Aires (several weeks ago now) visited the Recoleta Cemetery, I was struck by the “Make a Wish” billboard framed at the end of one of the narrow paths–streets, in a sense–that crisscross the cemetery. Well off hallowed ground, but present in its visibility, a foil to the wishes expressed…
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Birdwatching for Translators
I was asked recently when on this trip I had particularly felt I was somewhere else. Well, running, last Friday. It was a gray, cold, drizzly morning with a strong wind, easily run-in-a-fleece weather; a day worthy of Michigan at the end of March (remember, we just celebrated the first day of spring). The wind…
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First Day of Spring
Podrán cortar todas las flores pero no acabarán con la primavera–they can cut all the flowers but they won’t do away with spring– Lapachos in bloom I wonder how long I’d have to live in the southern hemisphere for September to mean springtime to me. I do associate September with beginnings– new school year, time…
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Running on Sunday
I set out to run on Sunday, either over toward the Paraná River and along the bluffs on the shore for a bit, as I’ve done before, or maybe taking Blvd. Oroño in the other direction, toward Parque de la Independencia [map]. But I found that the boulevard is closed to vehicle traffic on Sundays…
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Paraná River Cruise
A few pictures from last weekend’s river cruise, a two-hour trip from the Estación Fluvial (just below the Monumento a la Bandera), up to the foot of the Rosario-Victoria bridge and back. The water was high, so the boat was able to take a further channel, between islands, then return via the main channel of…